Journal of Slavic Linguistics

Contents

A Special Issue in Honor of Leonard H. Babby

Reflections

Wayles Browne and Catherine V. Chvany
In Honor of Leonard H. Babby      5

The Publications of Leonard H. Babby, 1969-present     17
Articles

John Frederick Bailyn
Overt Predicators      23

Loren A. Billings
Phrasal Clitics     53

Vladimir Borschev and Barbara H. Partee
The Russian Genetitive of Negation: Theme-Rheme Structure or Perspective Structure?     105

Steven Franks
A Jakobsonian Feature Based Analysis of the Slavic Numeric Quantifier Genitive     145

Stephanie Harves
Genitive of Negation and the Existential Paradox     185

Charles Jones and James S. Levine
Russian V+ šč- Adjectives and Adverbs     213

James E. Lavine and Robert Freidin
The Subject of Defective T(ense) in Slavic      251

Marjorie J. McShane
Unexpressed Objects in Russian     289

Gilbert C. Rappaport
Numeral Phrases in Russian: A Minimalist Approach     327

Archives

Leonard H. Babby
Subjectlessness, External Subcategorization, and the Projection Principle     341

Article Abstracts

John Frederick Bailyn

Overt Predicators

Abstract: This paper explores morphological evidence for the functional category Pred. The Russian lexical items kak and za are introduced as overt predicators with particular “case-absorption” properties. This analysis is extended to other possible predicators in Russian and Polish. The central claim is that overt predicators “neutralize” the inherent (instrumental) case property of Pred in Russian, resulting in “Sameness of Case” effects, familiar from Serbo-Croatian.

Loren A. Billings

Phrasal Clitics

Abstract: This study proposes an Optimality-theoretic model through which the various grammar components (semantics, syntax, the lexicon, morphology, and prosody) jointly determine the placement of clitics with a phrasal positioning domain, which is either a nominal expression or a clause. In order to render scope, such clitics must be phrase-initial. However, the morphology, carrying out subcategorization encoded in the lexicon, requires many such clitics to be suffixes. A third constraint prohibits affixation across certain syntactic boundaries. These three constraints require conflicting outputs, and cannot all be satisfied simultaneously. Depending on a particular language's constraint hierarchy, at least one constraint must be violated. Thus, a typology of clitic-placement strategies is predicted. This theory of cross-linguistic variation is based on conflicting requirements imposed by the aforementioned components of the grammar. In addition to an overview of clitic phenomena in Slavic and elsewhere, this paper demonstrates the proposed typology primarily using a clitic phenomenon in Russian in comparison to those in Tagalog and Warlpiri. In addition, these proposals make specific predictions about which kinds of clitic positioning can and cannot occur. Namely, these constraints predict an asymmetry in clitic-positioning types, excluding penultimate clisis.

Vladimir Borschev and Barbara H. Partee

The Russian Genetitive of Negation: Theme-Rheme Structure or Perspective Structure?

Abstract: In recent work we have come to challenge assumptions that we shared (Borschev and Partee 1998a) with Babby (1980) concerning the role of Theme-Rheme structure in accounting for the nominative-genitive alternation in negated existential sentences (the NES construction, in the terms of Babby (1980), the classic work which we are building on). The challenge is exemplified most clearly in our "kefir example":

(i) [Ja iskal kefir.] Kefira v magazine ne bylo.
[I looked-for kefir.] Kefirgen.m.sg in store NEG wasN.SG
[I was looking for kefir.] There wasn't any kefir in the store.

It is an important part of the explanatory structure of Babby 1980 that in sentence (i), the Theme is v magazine and the Rheme is kefir- [byl-]. Babby takes Theme-Rheme structure to be crucial for determining the scope of negation, and scope of negation to be a necessary condition in licensing the occurrence of the genitive of negation. But arguments from word order, intonation, and pragmatics have convinced us that kefira in example (i) must be considered (part of) the Theme, and not the Rheme. We now argue that independent of Theme-Rheme structure there is a relevant "perspective structure", a kind of diathesis choice, allowing a proposition involving a suitable verb to be structured with either of its two arguments as "Perspectival Center". In a locative DS, the sentence predicates "being in a certain location" of the "thing" argument, whereas in an ES, the sentence predicates "having a certain thing in it" of the "location" argument. The theoretical status of such a layer of structure remains in need of further investigation.

Steven Franks

A Jakobsonian Feature Based Analysis of the Slavic Numeric Quantifier Genitive

Abstract: This paper subjects the GB parametric account of variation in Slavic numeral systems put forward in Franks (1995) to critical scrutiny from the perspective of minimalism. It is argued that the true nature of the variation lies in the case contexts in which QPs (phrases in which GEN-Q is assigned) can occur in the different languages. It is further argued that this variation is best understood in markedness terms, applied to a specific set of morphosyntactically motivated case features, loosely based on the semantic ones proposed in Jakobson, 1936, 1958).

Stephanie Harves

Genitive of Negation and the Existential Paradox

Abstract: This paper presents a new approach to the interpretation and Case-marking of NPs in the genitive of negation construction in Russian. I argue that analyses that determine the scope of an NP based on positions within Case-checking chains fail to account for the lack of a Definiteness Effect on subjects of BE in negated existential and locative constructions. Instead, I adopt a modified version of Beghelli and Stowell 1997, arguing that scope is licensed in the syntax via a feature-matching mechanism. This analysis will successfully prohibit referentially independent NPs from valuing genitive Case in transitive and unaccusative sentences, while simultaneously allowing them to value genitive Case in locative and existential BE-sentences.

Charles Jones and James S. Levine

Russian V+ šč- Adjectives and Adverbs

Abstract: This article elaborates on a problem raised in Babby 1986: the relation of Russian ä‹ij-participles to homophonous ä‹ij-adjectives and to corresponding ä‹e-adverbs (e.g., the participle ugroìajuä‹ij '[who is] threatening' and the adjective ugroìajuä‹ij 'threatening' to the adverb ugroìajuä‹e 'threateningly'). While the formation of active ä‹ij-participles from imperfective verbs is completely productive, the recategorization of these participles to adjectives and adverbs is less so. We show that, within a restricted theory of argument structure and morphology (Williams 1994), the V+ä‹- —> A derivation is quite free, while its particular syntactic successes and failures follow from the predicational properties of the underlying verb's argument structure. We specify which lexical classes allow the V+ä‹- —> A derivation and show how these classes are determined by the aspectual nature of their members (Tenny 1994).

James E. Lavine and Robert Freidin

The Subject of Defective T(ense) in Slavic

Abstract: In this paper we argue that the EPP requirement of Tense (that it occur with a specifier) is an independent syntactic primitive that is operative in the absence of both nominative Case and subject-predicate agreement. This proposal is supported empirically by a class of accusative-Case-assigning unaccusatives in Russian and Ukrainian. For these predicate types, the direct internal argument bears accusative case, but occurs in Spec-TP at PF. This results only when T lacks agreement features, thereby establishing a correlation between a defective Tense, which is f-incomplete, and a f-complete light-v, which values accusative Case of a complement. We conclude that there is no such thing as "Case absorption". This displacement, which is not predicted by Burzio's Generalization, is driven by the EPP, rather than Case or agreement.

Marjorie J. McShane

Unexpressed Objects in Russian

Abstract: ThIs paper adduces evidence for "first internal argument" as an independent syntactic entity, regardless of case-marking, by virtue of similar behavior with respect to missing-object potential. Implications are explored for the machine translation into English of Russian sentences containing unexpressed objects, particularly for cases in which there is a mismatch for non-expression of the object in the two languages.

Gilbert C. Rappaport

Numeral Phrases in Russian: A Minimalist Approach

Abstract: The present paper seeks to update Leonard Babby's 1987 analysis of "heterogeneous" vs. "homogeneous" morphosyntax in numeral expressions, as well as to refine the analysis, making use of recent syntactic developments, namely the emergence of the case-assigning mechanism Agree. The key insight is that numerals differ with respect to whether they contain a valued case feature. Heterogeneous case marking follows from a valued case feature on the nominal, while the homogeneous pattern reflects an unvalued case feature on the numeral, allowing for the numerically-quantified nominal expression to receive a single case from a higher lexical-case-assigning head.

Contents

Articles

Frank Y. Gladney
Verbs in Russian are Inflected for ±Real, ±Perfective, and ±Iterative     187

Alla Nedashkivska
Whither or Where: Case Choice and Verbs of Placement in Contemporary Ukrainian     213

Arthur Stepanov
Intensional Root Infinitives in Early Child Russian     253

Reviews

Robert D. Borsley
Anna Bondaruk. Comparison in English and Polish Adjectives: A Syntactic Study     287

Željko Bošković
Mila Dimitrova-Vulchanova, ed. Topics in South Slavic Syntax and Semantics     297

Ljiljana Progovac
Steven Franks and Tracy Halloway King A Handbook of Slavic Clitics     317

Catherine Rudin
Kjeti Rå Hauge. A Short Grammar of Contemporary Bulgarian     325

Gunter Schaarschmidt
Heinz Schuster-Šewc. Das Sorbische im slawischen Kontext     331

Article Abstracts

Frank Y. Gladney

Verbs in Russian are Inflected for ±Real, ±Perfective, and ±Iterative

Abstract: Verbs in Russian are inflected for [±REAL] and [±PERF] (perfective), base-generated features of the I(nflection) node, and for [±ITER(ative)], a base-generated feature of the V nodes. I may be lexicalized with one of the verbs for ‘be’, which are [–REAL] by, [+REAL], [+PERF] budet, and [–PERF] 0, in which case the verb receives nonfinite form. Or I may remain empty, in which case the verb raises to it and receives finite form. V consists of P(refix), which is sometimes null, and a lower V. Either V node may be specified [±ITER]. In the unmarked case, the upper V is [–ITER], but it switches to [+ITER] to implement a [–PERF] specification on I when P is lexicalized. The upper V can be [+ITER] independently of the [±PERF] feature of I, and this accounts for much of Aktionsart.

Alla Nedashkivska

Whither or Where: Case Choice and Verbs of Placement in Contemporary Ukrainian

Abstract: This article examines spatial relations in contemporary Ukrainian as connectedness in space between an object (Located Entity) and a spatial orienting point (Spatial Frame). The spatial relations discussed here are those conveyed by the prepositions v ‘in’ and na ‘on’ when used with four verbs of positioning: visaty/povisyty ‘hang’, stavyty/postavyty ‘stand’, klasty/poklasty ‘lay’, and sadyty/posadyty ‘seat’. The study focuses on whether, and to what extent, the directional placement expressed with these verbs can be coded with the locative case instead of the prescribed accusative. The data demonstrate that the use of the locative case for the directional placement is common in Ukrainian; however, this use is acceptable only under certain conditions. It is shown that the most important factor that influences the acceptability of the locative is the degree of verb and utterance Transitivity, which depends on grammatical, semantic, and pragmatic factors. Specifically, high-transitivity and low-transitivity contexts are associated with accusative and locative cases, respectively. In addition, the analysis underscores the importance of a pragmatic approach to the study of Ukrainian case.

Arthur Stepanov

Intensional Root Infinitives in Early Child Russian

Abstract: Previous research on children’s use of non-finite verb forms in finite contexts—Root Infinitives (RIs)—distinguished two types of the latter: those that describe an on-going activity (“extensional”), and those that are produced in the context of children’s wishes, desires, or intentions (“intensional”). This study provides a syntactic account of children’s intensional RIs. I argue that the aspects of the children’s grammar involved in generating intensional RIs (e.g. Tense/Agr system) are completely adult-like. On the basis of a quasi-experimental study of the spontaneous speech corpus of the Russian child, Varvara (CHILDES, Protassova 1988, MacWhinney and Snow 1990), I show that the syntactic structure of an intensional RI is that of a complement of an intensional predicate like want in adult Russian. The intensional predicate itself undergoes PF deletion under identity with its linguistic antecedent, in accord with the theory of surface anaphora of Hankamer and Sag (1976). The linguistic antecedent may be recovered in two ways: 1) from the previous discourse recorded in the transcript; 2) from the child’s ”internal monologue” which is assumed to be part of the linguistic discourse by virtue of the child’s Theory of Mind, a naive psychological framework underlying the young children’s system of knowledge and beliefs. Although RIs accounted for in the second way are not adult-like, their non-adult status is not due to any property of children’s grammar, but is a result of a particular stage in psychological development.

Contents

Articles

David Danaher
Czech Habitual Verbs and Conceptual Distancing     3

Stephen M. Dickey
"Semelfactive" -no- and the Western Aspect Gestalt     25

Alina Israeli
The Choice of Aspect in Russian Verbs of Communication     49

Hans Robert Mehlig
Verbal Aspect and the Referential Status of Verbal Predicates     99

Gary H. Toops
Aspectual Competition and Iterative Contexts in Contemporary Upper Sorbian     127

Remarks

Ljiljana Saric
Temporal Adverbial Quantifiers and Aspect Choice in Croatian     155

Charles E. Townsend
An Approach to Describing and Teaching Slavic Verbal Aspect: Aspect and the Lexicon     171

Article Abstracts

David Danaher

Czech Habitual Verbs and Conceptual Distancing

Abstract: One of the more puzzling meanings associated with Czech habitual or iterative verbs is their tendency in past morphology to denote a distant past. Traditional, feature-based analyses of this verb form’s semantics cannot adequately account for the status of the distant past meaning. Other scholars see a link between the distant past tendency and the feature of indeterminate iterativity that is part of the verb’s core semantics—thereby making the verb’s behavior in past morphology coherent with its behavior in present morphology—although the exact nature of this link has yet to be adequately described. Using a corpus of examples taken from sources in contemporary literary Czech, I argue that the distant-past meaning is in fact only a tendency. Verbs of this type can be used to express a remote past, a past period of time which is ambiguous with regard to remoteness, and, in some instances, a more or less recent past. The key to making sense of this behavior is an understanding of remoteness as primarily conceptual and not merely temporal; temporal distance becomes one possible, even preferred, realization of the broader phenomenon of conceptual distance. The notion of conceptual distancing also provides an adequate explanation for the link between morphologically past and present usages of the verb since morphologically present usages, as inductive generalizations over a class of entities or events, naturally presuppose distancing. My analysis is grounded in Charles Peirce’s semiotic treatment of habit and Ronald Langacker’s cognitive grammar framework.

Stephen M. Dickey

"Semelfactive" -no- and the Western Aspect Gestalt

Abstract: This article presents a discussion of differences between the Slavic languages regarding the historical productivity of -no,- as an aspectual suffix. It is shown that a class of prefixed pf a-stem/n-stem doublets has been more productive in a group of western languages (primarily Czech, Slovak, Upper Sorbian) and that this productivity declines in the languages farther to the east, reaching a minimum in Russian and Bulgarian. Further, differences are shown regarding the function of -no,- as a perfectivizing suffix in some Common Slavic unprefixed pf verbs. These differences are then discussed, with no claims to an exhaustive analysis.

Alina Israeli

The Choice of Aspect in Russian Verbs of Communication

Abstract: This article establishes the parameters governing choice of aspect in verbs of communication. The aspectual opposition under consideration is the imperfective general-factual vs. the perfective. Two types of pragmatic contract govern the communication: external contract, related to the expectancy of the communicative act, and the internal contract, which is part of the lexically-imposed expectation of the addressee’s communication and/or post-communication response. The non-fulfillment of either type of contract triggers imperfective general-factual. In addition, features of intentionality, consequentiality, and authority affect the choice of aspect. A section on performatives provides a taxonomy of aspectual uses and demonstrates that authority and reiteration are the key features.

Hans Robert Mehlig

Verbal Aspect and the Referential Status of Verbal Predicates

Abstract: Verbal predicates denoting situations which are located not simultaneously but retrospectively in time with respect to an absolute or relative “present” allow two fundamentally different intepretations: an actual one and a non-actual one. Each of the two possible interpretations is based on a different conceptual level. In the actual interpretation, a predicate refers to one or more concrete situations occupying a well-defined place in time and space; in the non-actual interpretation the predicate refers to the “type” of situation and thus to situations that are potentially locatable in time, but not related concretely on the time axis. This distinction between actuality and non-actuality—between reference to one or more “tokens” of a situation and reference to the type of the situation—is of primary importance for the category of aspect in Russian. Verbal predicates referring to actual situations can be presented from different perspectives by means of different aspectual forms—they allow a situation to be presented from an internal or an external perspective. In contrast, predicates interpreted non-actually involve a neutralization of the aspect opposition. In the latter case, only the imperfective aspect is acceptable and has no aspectual function, but functions merely as the aspectual genus proximum. This article shows that the distinction between actual and non-actual reference—between token- and type-reference—is also relevant for aspect usage in Who-questions.

Gary H. Toops

Aspectual Competition and Iterative Contexts in Contemporary Upper Sorbian

Abstract: In Upper Sorbian, as in the other contemporary West Slavic languages, itera-tive/habitual actions (acts or events) can be expressed by both imperfective and perfec-tive verbs. Aspectual competition in iterative contexts is therefore complete. Based on the results of a questionnaire that incorporated a variety of iterative contexts and that was administered to native speakers of Upper Sorbian in July-August 2000, the article demon-strates that a number of lexical, stylistic, and morphosemantic factors condition aspect selection by today’s native speakers of Upper Sorbian. This is shown to hold true across generational lines, whether today’s speakers of Upper Sorbian instantiate verbal aspect as a strict imperfective-perfective opposition; or whether—in the case of prefixed verbs and their stem-suffixed (formerly imperfective) counterparts—they instantiate a quasi-aspec-tual indeterminate-determinate opposition. The article thus counters claims made by some Slavists that verbal aspect in contemporary Upper Sorbian is obsolete, functionally restricted, or subordinate to other grammatical categories such as tense.

Ljiljana Saric

Temporal Adverbial Quantifiers and Aspect Choice in Croatian

Abstract: This analysis of the interaction of temporal quantifiers and aspect in Croatian and Serbian is based on examples containing the frequency adverbs rijetko, ponekad, cesto, uvijek and the repetitive adverbs dva puta/dvaput, tri puta/triput, nekoliko puta, vise puta, puno/mnogo puta and nebrojeno puta. Occurrences of these adverbial expressions in discourse are examined to see if and to what extent there is a correlation between repeated action and the notion of imperfectivity, and if the semantic differences between the analyzed adverbs make any difference in this regard. Some differences in the preference for the perfective in contexts of repetition in Croatian and Serbian are also discussed.

Charles E. Townsend

An Approach to Describing and Teaching Slavic Verbal Aspect: Aspect and the Lexicon

Abstract not available

Contents

Special Issue on Polish

Articles

Barbara Citko
On the Syntax and Semantics of Polish Adjunct Clauses      5

Ewa Dornisch
Pronominal Object Clitics as the Head of Transitivity Phrase     29

Katarzyna Dziwirek
Why Polish Doesn’t Like Infinitives     57

Marjorie J. McShane
Hierarchies of Parallelism in Elliptical Polish Structures      83

Adam Przepiórkowski
Long Distance Genitive of Negation in Polish      119

Gilbert C. Rappaport
Extraction from Nominal Phrases in Polish and the Theory of Determiners      159

María-Luisa Rivero
Impersonal się in Polish: A Simplex Expression Anaphor     199

Bożena Rozwadowska
Hierarchies of Parallelism in Elliptical Polish Structures      239

Marek Świdziński
Negativity Transmission in Polish Constructions with Participles and Gerunds      263

Jacek Witkoś
Nominative-to-Genitive Shift and the Negative Copula nie ma: Implications for Checking Theory and for the Nature of the EPP in Polish     295

Article Abstracts

Barbara Citko

On the Syntax and Semantics of Polish Adjunct Clauses

Abstract: This paper examines the structure and interpretation of Polish clausal adjuncts involving what looks like a wh-pronoun jak ‘how’. The presence of the same wh-word in three distinct constructions raises two interesting questions: (i) What, if any, is the semantic contribution of the word jak?, and (ii) Where exactly does the manner, temporal and conditional interpretation come from? The paper shows that jak, in addition to being a manner wh-pronoun, can function as a complementizer, which correlates with the loss of manner interpretation.

Ewa Dornisch

Pronominal Object Clitics as the Head of Transitivity Phrase

Abstract: Recent proposals that subjects are introduced in the specifier position of a projection above VP but below TP, referred to as Transitivity Phrase, naturally raise the question of whether the head of this projection can be lexically instantiated. This paper argues that pronominal object clitics are in fact overt realizations of that head (Tr). Further, I argue that the V-feature of Tr is not universally strong as has been proposed in Collins 1997 and (indirectly) in Chomsky 1995. I will demonstrate that in Polish the V-feature of Tr can be either strong or weak. When the V-feature of Tr is weak, the raising of V to Tr is not triggered. This proposal accounts, among other things, for the possibility of pronominal clitics in Polish moving independently from the verb or any other constituent.

Katarzyna Dziwirek

Why Polish Doesn’t Like Infinitives

Abstract: This paper proposes an explanation for three gaps in the array of Polish infinitival constructions: the lack of object control with accusative controllers, ECM verbs, and object raising. The hypothesis rests on two basic notions: a) the standard RG analyses of these constructions which involve cross-clausal 1–2 multiattachments, and b) the proposal that 1–2 multiattachments in Polish are ALWAYS resolved by a birth of the reflexive clitic sie. Put together, a) and b) result in a clash between universally well formed RNs and a Polish-specific morpho-syntactic requirement. Since the multiattached nominal is the subject of one clause and a direct object of another, the grammar does not know which verb to assign the clitic to and thus disallows these constructions. In English, where 1–2 multiattachments are not overtly marked, such conflict does not arise and the constructions are valid. It is argued that data concerning -sja in Russian provide support for the analysis. The changing status of -sja manifests itself in two syntactic ways. One, previously noted, is the existence of several -sja marked verbs which occur with accusative complements. Another, is the existence of a few verbs which allow the “accusative plus infinitive” construction. Both indicate a new stage in the changing role of -sja and the way Russian treats 1–2 multiattachments. Neither is allowed in Polish, where the bi-unique connection between sie and 1–2 multiattachment is very strong.

Marjorie J. McShane

Hierarchies of Parallelism in Elliptical Polish Structures

Abstract: This paper discusses the ellipsis of accusative direct objects (DOs), the enclitic sie, and the conditional marker by in Polish. While these three elements are grammatically heterogeneous, they show identical patterns of ellipsis in configurations marked by a high degree of parallelism. This suggests that certain fundamental properties of ellipsis hold language-wide, and that generalizations are missed when ellipsis is approached in the traditional category-by-category fashion.

Adam Przepiórkowski

Long Distance Genitive of Negation in Polish

Abstract: The aim of this article is to provide a formal analysis of non-local Genitive of Negation in Polish, a phenomenon occurring in so-called ‘clause union’ environments and consisting in the genitive case being assigned to an object of a lower verb when a higher verb is negated, instead of the expected accusative. In particular, I examine two aspects of such non-local Genitive of Negation, occasionally noted in the traditional literature, but ignored in formal or generative linguistics, namely, its optionality and its potential multiplicity. I show that the main characteristics of non-local Genitive of Negation follow in a straightforward manner from the interaction of two independently motivated analyses, namely, an analysis of ‘clause union’ environments as involving optional raising, and a local nonconfigurational analysis of syntactic case assignment. Both analyses are couched within Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar. I argue that the resulting account is superior to previous analyses of non-local Genitive of Negation in Polish on empirical, formal and conceptual grounds.

Gilbert C. Rappaport

Extraction from Nominal Phrases in Polish and the Theory of Determiners

Abstract: A Parameterized Determiner Phrase Hypothesis has been developed in recent work: Noun Phrases are embedded as the complement of a functional category Determiner in a language if and only if that language has overt articles. It would follow that extraction from within a Noun Phrase will be more restricted in a Determiner language, because of the additional structure. While this hypothesis is plausible, we argue against it on empirical grounds, focusing in detail on the data of English and Polish (by hypothesis, Determiner and Determiner-less languages, respectively). While there are differences in extraction between the two languages, the similarities are far greater than the Parameterized Determiner Phrase Hypothesis predicts. In fact, the similarities provide arguments for Determiners in Polish. The paper develops an account of observed extraction patterns in terms of recent work in Minimalism, relying in particular on the Phase Impenetrability Condition and cyclic spell-out of phases (rendering portions of structure opaque to further syntactic operations). English and Polish differ in whether the functional category D can have an ‘EPP’ feature, invoking raising to Spec-of-D. This parameter of variation is unrelated to whether or not a language has overt articles.

María-Luisa Rivero

Impersonal się in Polish: A Simplex Expression Anaphor

Abstract: Polish resembles Italian, Slovenian, and Spanish, and differs from Bulgarian, Czech, Romanian, and standard Serbo-Croatian in displaying an arbitrary subject use for reflexive się. Polish shares with other Slavic languages an arbitrary object use for this clitic. Arbitrary się is an indefinite pronoun of the S(implex) E(xpression) anaphor type, as in Reinhart and Reuland (1993). It signals the movement chain of a phonologically null defective NP with a human feature but no ?-features that raises as external or internal argument of the predicate to the “base-generated” się to repair its formal and referential deficiencies, by checking Case and receiving quantificational force. One use of się as SE-anaphor distinguishes Polish both from other Slavic languages and from the Romance languages: as expletive, it can transmit the thematic, binding, and control properties of the external argument to a non-selected Dative.

Bożena Rozwadowska

Hierarchies of Parallelism in Elliptical Polish Structures

Abstract: The paper discusses aspectual distinctions among Polish nominalizations belonging to different semantic domains, in particular action nominals and psych nominals. It is demonstrated that in Polish there are two types of nominals that qualify as complex event nominals in the understanding of Grimshaw 1990: aspectually ambiguous derived nominals whose properties are like those of English derived nominals and verbal nouns which have grammatical aspect and form aspectual pairs like the related verbs. It is argued that not only action nominalizations but also psych nominalizations denote complex eventualities, except that in the former the culmination point terminates the eventuality whereas in the latter it is at the beginning. The perfective/imperfective contrast is taken as evidence for the complexity of the eventuality and the heterogenous nature of the component subevents. In conclusion, it is suggested that the atomic Vendlerian taxonomy of event types is insufficient for the analysis of different types of complex events and furthermore that the overt aspectual distinctions among Polish nominalizations belonging to different semantic domains might be also present covertly in other languages, which leads to ambiguities of various sorts.

Marek Świdziński

Negativity Transmission in Polish Constructions with Participles and Gerunds

Abstract: The paper deals with the problem of negativity transmission in sentences which contain a phrase headed by the word form of a participle: adjectival (czytajacy, czytany) or adverbial (czytajac, przeczytawszy), a gerund (czytanie), or quasi-gerund (nieczytanie). A formal account of the issue within the Metamorphosis Grammar framework is proposed. In Polish negative sentences two syntactic phenomena are observed: (a) Genitive of Negation (accusative complements convert into genitive), and (b) Negative Concord (negative pronouns, like nikt, nic, nigdzie, cannot appear in non-negative sentences). The impact of negation is bi-directional (top-down and bottom-up). Participial and gerundial phrases syntactically behave in two ways. Negation of the higher verb(al) phrase either affeand for theey were constituents of the whole phrase (negativity tunnel), or it does not (negativity island). The formal description of Polish negation given in Âwidziƒski (1992) is presented. In the rules of the grammar syntactic units are parametrized terms. The mechanism of parameter scattering and matching is used to account for various agreement phenomena. A number of adjustments to the grammar are proposed to cover constructions with a participial or gerundial constituent.

Jacek Witkoś

Nominative-to-Genitive Shift and the Negative Copula nie ma: Implications for Checking Theory and for the Nature of the EPP in Polish

Abstract: This paper deals with the issue of the Genitive of Negation (GN) showing up on apparent subjects in certain constructions with the negative locative copula in Polish and its consequences for the theory of feature checking. The GN on the apparent subject is taken to result from the same case feature checking mechanism as the regular GN on the nominal objects of negated transitive verbs; in both cases the relevant nominals are attracted to v, forming [spec, vP] to have their [+Objective] feature checked. They are then further attracted by the head of NegP in covert syntax. The attraction of the nominals and the feature checking on the two functional heads is morphologically manifested in the form of the Genitive. A derivation including such procedure of GN licensing on the sole nominal argument of the negative locative copula requires services of a case feature carrying expletive pro, whose task is to check the relevant features of T. A closer analysis of a group of unaccusative verbs licensing (partitive) Genitive on their arguments (arguably also in the [spec, vP] position) reveals that derivations using this type of expletive pro are necessary for independent reasons. As expected, the arguments of both the unaccusative verbs licensing (partitive) Genitive and the negative locative copula fail to show properties typical of syntactic subjects. The paper ends with a discussion of the role of expletive elements in the derivation.

Contents

Reflections

Daniela S. Hristova
Total Fears     171

Articles

Alina Israeli
'Same' and 'Different' in Russian     179

John Moore and David M. Perlmutter
Case, Agreement, and Temporal Particles in Russian Infinitival Clauses     219

Yuri Novikov and Tom Priestly
Gender Differentiation in Personal and Professional Titles in Contemporary Russian     247

Irina A. Sekerina
The Scrambling Complexity Hypothesis and Processing of Split Scrambling Constructions in Russian     265

Sandra Stjepanovic
Scrambling: Overt Movement or Base Generation and LF Movement?     305

Reviews

Robert A. Orr
H. Schuster-Šewc. Grammar of the Upper Sorbian Language: Phonology and Morphology     325

Gilbert C. Rappaport
Robert D. Borsley and Adam Przepiórkowski, eds. Slavic in Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar     331

Article Abstracts

Alina Israeli

'Same' and 'Different' in Russian

Abstract: The article analyses the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic factors governing the use of expressions meaning 'the same' and 'different' in Russian. It demonstrates that one of the factors is the number of items: one item (similarity) or two items (sameness). It also demonstrates that the six basic and two deictic ways to say 'the same' and the three ways to say 'different' represent either a sentence-external reading or a sentence-internal reading. This criterion partially overlaps with the treatment of the entities compared as co-equals, since only a sentence-internal reading may allow such treatment in the cases of similarity, sameness and difference. Other factors in the case of sameness may include the unexpectedness of the second mention of the item, reminding of the previous use or the perceived inappropriateness of the second use, and whether or not the entity is shared.

John Moore and David M. Perlmutter

Case, Agreement, and Temporal Particles in Russian Infinitival Clauses

Abstract: In this paper we argue that the Russian particles bylo, byvalo, and budet, when they occur in infinitival clauses with dative subjects, are not auxiliaries but adverbial temporal particles. This analysis accounts for the fact that they are morphologically invariant, that is, do not agree with their dative subject. We provide five arguments for this analysis, based on the placement of negation, aspectual restrictions, bylo and byvalo in finite clauses, their occurrence with other auxiliaries, and their use as modifiers of adjectives. Our analysis has implications for the general analysis of infinitival clauses in Russian. We argue, contra recent claims, that Russian infinitivals are not tensed. Our account also has consequences for the treatment of second-dative phenomena.

Yuri Novikov and Tom Priestly

Gender Differentiation in Personal and Professional Titles in Contemporary Russian

Abstract: A short sociolinguistic study was conducted among Russian immigrants and visitors to Canada to determine the influence of various factors, such as age, sex, education, social status, and the location of longest residence in the former Soviet Union, on the choice of gender in feminine personal and professional titles, in specifiers of unchangeable masculine nouns, and in past-tense verbal forms. The influence of age and longest place of residence in the former Soviet Union were shown to be significant for nouns, while the education factor was more likely to affect the use of feminine adjectival and preterit verbal forms in the specification of unchangeable masculine nouns.

Irina A. Sekerina

The Scrambling Complexity Hypothesis and Processing of Split Scrambling Constructions in Russian

Abstract: This article investigates the processing of discontinuous constituents in Russian which result from Split Scrambling. Two experiments are reported, an on-line chunk-by-chunk self-paced reading study and a norming sentence completion questionnaire. The experimental findings provide evidence for the processing complexity of Split Scrambling compared to phrasal XP-Scrambling, as reflected in increased reading times in Experiment 1 and avoidance of discontinuous constituents through morphological means, such as novel nominalizations, in Experiment 2. These results support the Scrambling Complexity Hypothesis (SCH).

Sandra Stjepanovic

Scrambling: Overt Movement or Base Generation and LF Movement?

Abstract: In this paper I have tried to tease apart two approaches dealing with the last-resort problem of scrambling within the Minimalist framework, in particular, that of Fukui (1993) and Saito and Fukui (1992; 1998) on one side and Boskovic and Takahashi's (1998) on the other. I have shown that the latest version of Saito and Fukui's account, Saito and Fukui (1998), is empirically problematic. Boskovic and Takahashi's (1998) theory, which involves the base generation of scrambled elements in their surface positions and their LF movement to positions where they receive theta-roles, does not run into these problems.